Thursday, September 29, 2005

I dunno, if that's supposed to be the Washington Monument, the proportions and perspective seem to be a bit screwed up. On the other hand, Ultimo looks pretty cool, and Iron Man never looks better than when he's covered in Kirby squiggles.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Class barriers and conflicts were one of the big themes of romance comics. Kirby did that well, with a lot of good visual shorthand no doubt based on his own experiences, with some great work on the background characters. Also of course the usual sexy and stylish main characters.

Publishers Weekly has an article on the genesis of the upcoming MAXIMUM FANTASTIC FOUR coffee-table book reprint of FF #1, with comments from Walter Mosely. Apparently the book jacket will fold out to a poster with photo reproductions of every page of the comic (it doesn't say, but presumably full size) while inside every panel will be printed as a full page. If that's your kind of thing.

Monday, September 26, 2005

A nice Kirby/Brodsky cover introducing the Hulk to the title, first through this guest shot leading to his solo run beginning next issue. There are a lot of great Kirby Hulk images on this run of covers, and this is one of my favourites. Just a very powerful and kinetic image, the movement is so clear you can see this as a storyboard for a movie.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Here's a nice image of the Howler's circled by what I guess are their German counterparts. For some reason I'm tempted to reverse the logos and present it as the rare Earth-X comic BARON STRUCKER AND HIS BLITZKREIG SQUAD. Although I thought the character was better when they brought him into the modern age as Oberst Strucker, Agent of S.C.H.I.L.D.

The Kirby checklist lists this as Colletta inks, but I'm not seeing it at all. GCD seems to be down, so I can't cross-check there, but I'm thinking Ayers.

Friday, September 23, 2005

A Kirby/Ayers reprint from STRANGE TALES #102 (1962) in this issue, the second solo Torch story, where we meet the Wizard, a brilliant inventor who for some reason decides that defeating the Human Torch will be his greatest triumph. Just because he's a genius, doesn't mean he's not stupid...

He fakes an accident that only the Torch can rescue him from, and then lures the Torch to his futuristic home and douses the Torch's flame (this is during that brief period when Johnny had a secret identity, so the flames on his head conveniently stay).

The Wizard then duplicates the Torch's powers and goes on a crime spree to frame our hero. Fortunately Johnny gets free and then does what he does best, goes running to his big sister for help (and it's just sad when you get a solo feature and have to go to your sister for help on the second story).

One interesting thing in this story is the depiction of the Wizard's escape artist routine, which could be dropped in panel-for-panel in a Mister Miracle story from a decade later.

An undercover Global Peace Agency investigator reveals the fruits of his investigation to OMAC, a criminal organization that has stolen a machine that can switch minds, and plans to sell the technology to rich old people who want young bodies. Of course, that's as far as the GPA can go, since they can't use violence. But they can ask OMAC to use violence all they want, apparently. OMAC and the GPA agent get attacked, giving us the excuse for the Brother Eye wizardry of the issue, protecting them and faking the scene so it looks like they were killed.

OMAC then traces the criminal organization, bringing in the GPA to mop up after he's done.

I'm finding I like these OMAC stories more every time I read them. While a fairly minor Kirby creation in the grand scheme, there's a lot of energetic fun and clever ideas in every issue.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

That's a really nice horse there on the cover of this western cover, one of the last handful Kirby of western image would draw at Marvel. Chic Stone inks, and makes me wish he had inked at least one Kirby western story in this era, just to see what it would be like.

The first volume of KAMANDI ARCHIVES, reprinting the first 10 issues of the series, is now out.

KAMANDI ARCHIVES VOL. 1 HCWritten by Jack KirbyArt by Kirby & Mike RoyerCover by KirbyThe first archive in a series collecting the adventures of Kamandi, the last boy on Earth, by Jack Kirby! In these tales from KAMANDI #1-10 (1972-1973), Kamandi — one of the few survivors of the Great Disaster — must make his way in a world populated by bizarre mutated animals and other strange wonders!244 pg, FC, $49.99 US

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

From the middle of Kirby's run of covers for the FF during his mid-1970s stint at Marvel, this has a nice image of Ben with one of his last great sparring partners from the original run on the book. I also like that dragon the Torch is fighting a lot.

Two Marvel collections with Kirby artwork among the contents. ALL-WINNERS #1 and #2 both have S&K Captain America stories. The one from #2 is currently unreprinted but should be in the GIANT SIZE INVADERS #2 before the Masterworks comes out, along with several other stories that will be in this hardcover. The S&K story from #1 has been reprinted once or twice before. And of course Kirby's WHAT IF issue was recently reprinted in MARVEL VISIONARIES - JACK KIRBY, so that's only of marginal interest, but he did also do the cover to #9 which should be in there. He also did an unused cover to #10, and Marvel has been running that kind of stuff in the back of their tradepaperbacks lately, so it might show up.

WHAT IF? CLASSIC VOL. 2 TPBWritten by DON GLUT & JACK KIRBYPenciled by JACK KIRBY, RICK HOBERG, BILL BLACK, SAL BUSCEMA, ALAN KUPPERBERG & JIM MOONEYCover by JACK KIRBYDaredevil’s secret exposed? The identity of Thor passed down to another? A new Hulk? Multiple Spider-Men? Some of the ideas that shook Marvel’s foundation got their start right in the realm of remote possibility overseen by the wondering Watcher! But can even Uatu believe his eyes when Jack “King” Kirby rewrites himself and his fellow legends as the Fantastic Four? Plus: from a concept by Roy Thomas, the Avengers of 1958! Collects WHAT IF? #7-12.216 PGS./ $24.99ISBN: 0-7851-1843-8

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

A reprint of X-MEN #5 (1964) in this issue, a 24-page Kirby/Reinman story, with the second round of the ongoing battle with Magneto's Evil Mutants. As we begin, they're recovering from their last encounter, which has left Professor X without his powers. A few odd scenes follow, with a visit from Jean's parents and Cyclops accidentally left in the Danger Room to provide an action sequence.

Shortly thereafter, Magneto has the Toad pose as a competitor in a track meet showing mutant powers in order to lure in the X-Men, hoping to reveal their headquarters.

They unmask him in time, leading to a battle on the subway, and then the Angel is taken prisoner aboard Magneto's Asteroid M headquarters. The X-Men follow, and are able to prevail and escape thanks to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch being reluctant to follow Magneto's commands to the point of murdering the X-Men. I wonder at what point it was decided they would join the Avengers? Anyway, the X-Men return home and find out that, among other things, Professor X is a jerk.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of Reinman's inks compared to some of the other inkers of the era, but he does preserve most of the interesting things in Kirby's art.

Marvel apparently announced a general overview of some of their plans for 2006 at a retailers thing this past weekend. All plans are tentative at this point, of course. Most notable surprise is the plan for a hardcover reprint of Kirby's THE ETERNALS series of the 1970s. Also, an X-MEN OMNIBUS to come out when the next X-Men movie does, so presumably like the FF book about the first 30 issues, with letter columns.

Plans also for 24 volumes in the ESSENTIAL series and 18 in the MASTERWORKS, almost sure to be a few in each with Kirby (if I were betting I'd say the final Kirby FF volume for each of those is certain, and volumes of THOR in each are likely).

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Two S&K stories in this issue, both fairly short so lacking a bit in the complexity of their early romance classics, but with some good points.

"Wedding Present" is a 6-page story about Hank, a young man who falls for Kay and then plans to ask her to marry him just as he gets his draft notice. Unfortunately for him, Kay has been getting serious about another man and Hank reacts poorly to the news.

The action then shifts to Korea, where Hank still has trouble accepting his rejection, even to the point of ignoring obvious advances from a pretty nurse. His rival, Charlie, shows up wounded, and a lecture and blood transfusion later and Hank is ready to move on with his life and finally notices the nurse's attentions.

This could have been a really good story with a few more pages, and still has some nice scenes, but comes across as more of a summary of a story with just six pages.

"Norma, The Queen of the Hot Dogs" is a 4-page story with a pretty odd title and premise. Norma, a fashion model, is unsure of what to do with her life, wanting to live the high-life but unwilling to marry her rich boss. She ends up going into business with a local hot dog vendor after he remarks that business picks up whenever she hangs around his stand. The new concept for the stand is successful, and they franchise it to more stands with other pretty girls. Yes, S&K predicted Hooters... Of course she still wants more and marries their accountant. Bit of a let-down ending, where it turns out all she really wanted was a strong man and beautiful babies.

As the "anniversary" issue, this also has a page with a short note from the editors and a small reproduction of the classic first issue of YL from 1949.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Some more late wartime cover artwork with the Newsboys from S&K while others were handling the interiors. This is a fun one (should have used this one on the anniversary of the weblog...), although Scrapper looks a bit off.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

The reprints of the Inhumans back-ups from THOR continue in this issue, which reprints the 5-page Kirby/Sinnott story from THOR #149 (1968). Black Bolt is now 19 years old, and being trusted to leave his sound-proof quarters which protected Attilan from his destructive voice. Some of the other familiar Inhumans of the Royal Family come to meet him, including young Crystal. Of course, brother Maximus comes along and wants to prove that Black Bolt can't be trusted to control his powers, and thus claim the throne.

Of course Black Bolt passes the test, and the other Inhumans take care of Maximus. A nice short story, interesting to see the younger versions of the characters, and always a great way to see Kirby/Sinnott drawing the characters using their powers, like Medusa's hair and Karnak's martial arts.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Three Kirby/Ayers stories and one cover reprinted from 1962 in this issue.

The cover and lead story are from RAWHIDE KID #30. "When the Kid Went Wild" features a favourite plot device of comics of that era, the hypnotist (there were a lot in the super-hero books). The hypnotist in question is Spade Desmond, who comes to town and uses his powers to get free drinks and embarrass people. When the guns come out he's too distracted to use his powers, so the Kid helps him out. Desmond is pretty ungrateful, though, and decides to bring the Kid under his powers.

I love that middle panel. Those Kirby extreme close-ups are always fun, and this one especially so. He uses the Kid's reputation to do some robbing, until finally he tries to force the Kid to cross the one line he refuses to.

The other two stories are from RAWHIDE KID #27, "The Man Who Caught the Kid" and "The Girl, The Gunmen, and the Apaches", which I talked about from a prior reprint. A good variety of the types of adventures the Kid encounters in this issue.

Boy, been a while since the last New Kirby announcement. Trivial one this time. Marvel just released MARVEL MASTERWORKS - DOCTOR STRANGE v2, collecting the last few Ditko stories and the rest of the STRANGE TALES run. This wouldn't be relevent to this weblog except that v1 contained no covers, so this one includes all the covers featuring Doctor Strange that should have been in v1, several by Kirby. Exactly how many depends on how loosely they interpret "Doctor Strange’s cover appearances".

The new kid on the Marvel block meets one of the veterens in this Kirby/Sinnott cover from early in the run of NOVA. Good stuff, of the non-Kirby 1970s characters I think that Nova looks most at home drawn in Kirby's style.

Monday, September 12, 2005

One year ago today (following a few test posts no one saw) I started this weblog (a few earlier admin entries are back-dated to keep them out of the way). It's gotten a lot further along in that year than I expected, with this book making 457 Kirby related publications covered. That still leaves a long way to go, it's only a third of the total I can cover even assuming I don't buy any more in the interim (and I've got two in the mail as I write this...), and even that would be less than half of the total (not even counting foreign reprints...). So I'll be here for a while. Aim for this time next year is 1000. As usual, lists of issues covered in the weblog and recent Kirby publications on the side. And thanks to all who've provided help, encouragement, comments and links.

MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS #80, is an odd choice for the one-year post, I know, but it's a book that has a lot of sentimental value to me as the first place I ever recall seeing Kirby's art (and is, I think, the oldest book of any sort I own, in order of acquisition. If I ever sort my collection autobiographically this is on top). My exposure to Kirby was pretty spotty for the next decade (it was a bad decade for newsstand distribution of Kirby's work and back issues weren't really available to me in high suburbia), but each of the dozen or so examples I remember coming across sticks out (and of course his characters and influence were everywhere). I don't know how many times I read this thing. Clearly a lot, as it's in rough shape and held that way by tape (I actually picked up a nicer copy a while ago, as well as the original of the story it reprints, but I have this affection for my original copy). I know that it stuck with me a lot more than just about anything else I read that year.

Let me say first, I love this image:

I remember trying to trace that (and a few others) a few times, just to try to capture some of whatever made it work. Of course, I can't draw, but I didn't let that stop me.

As I mention in my post about FANTASTIC FOUR #99 (1970), this is probably the last great FF story. Starting with a great splash page of Ben practicing his skiing in front of a mirror and with a great battle between the Torch and the Inhumans, it's a visual delight. Got, that splash of the Inhuman royal family? Beautiful. It's also a story about all those things that make the FF great. Family, responsibility, conflict, misunderstandings, the impetuousness of youth, love. There's a great sense of history in this story, in a way that enriches it even if you aren't familiar with the earlier stories.

Joe Sinnott inks the edited to 18-page story and heavily modified for the reprint cover, which is a good reason that on most days I consider him my favourite Kirby inker.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

The second coming of Galactus, not quite as good as the first but still a fun story, begins in this issue, as the Surfer visits Alicia, and after the usual bout of Ben's jealousy announces that Galactus is, contrary to his vow, returning to Earth. Galactus, never one to do things the easy way, first sends his servant the Punisher, who the male members of the FF battle (as they keep the battle a secret from Sue, due to her pregnancy).

The Punisher later vanishes in mid-battle, as the Surfer has gone into hiding and Galactus needs to resort to other means to find him.

Good stuff, but there's that bit of an odd disconnect that you sometimes find between the lines of work from this era. It would be interesting to see Kirby's full margin notes from this issue, as a few things seem to have been garbled. But then you see a full-page portrait of Galactus and you really stop caring about the words so much...

Saturday, September 10, 2005

The final issue of FOREVER PEOPLE sees the kids on the run from one of Darkseid's minions, Devilance. They do well, but are sort of hamstrung by their refusal to kill, something Devilance has no problem with. They end up on a pacific island (which I notice has those Easter Island giant head statues that Kirby seems to like so much, although they don't enter into the story) for their last stand. Meanwhile, in another dimension, the Infinity Man is still where Darkseid banished him, cut off from the Forever People and recovering on the peaceful world of Adon.

For reasons that escape me, he's able to make contact with the kids again, and trades places with them and battles Devilance to the end, leaving the Forever People on Adon. Obviously a quick wrap-up for the cancelled book, I always get the feeling that I'm missing something obvious in this story, some key to the whole. Nice looking book, though.

Mike Royer inks the 22-page story and cover. And since it's on my mind, he uses those extra thick panel borders that I mentioned earlier, although less frequently than the once-a-page that he did in the other story where they stood out.

Friday, September 09, 2005

The middle of the big Mangog storyline, as Thor observes the dark storms that portend trouble in Asgard, and finds Sif in a hospital bed from their previous adventure, heals her and departs for Asgard. We also catch up with Balder, having his own troubles with the Norn Queen, and a brief reminder about the colonizers of Rigel, the Recorder and Ego for future storylines.

As usual for this era of Thor, my favourite scene involves the Warriors Three, first doing some of their normal brawling for fun, then informed by Loki that Mangog approaches as Odin sleeps his Odinsleep, and sends them off to do battle.

First the Storm Giants and then the forces of Asgard battle bravely but futilely against Mangog (including, oddly a very futuristic rocket called an Odinian Force Arrow. Always thought the mix of old styles with modern technology in Asgard was weird). Thor follows the trail of carnage, finally finding the Warriors Three imprisoned and coming face to face with Mangog.

Great issue, very densely plotted, fast moving and taking advantage of the various parts of the mythology that had been introduced in the previous years, and the artwork is just gorgeous, full of power and clever storytelling bits.

This issue opens with the Evil Factory creation the Four-Armed Terror making its way towards the Project, attracted by the atomic radiation it feeds on, taking out the Outsiders on the way.

Meanwhile, our heroes are participating in a "Hairies" experiment that converts radio signals from the stars into sounds and images, which leads to three collage pages by Kirby before they're disturbed by the shockwaves from the Terrors attack on the Habitat in the Wild Area. Superman goes out to confront it, with Jimmy and the Newsboys defying his orders and following. As the Terror reaches its destination, Simyan and Mokkari hatch a whole army of Four-Armed Terrors.

It's pretty amazing how many concepts Kirby had introduced in his early issues on this book, many of them dropped into this issue. Unfortunately a lot of them would sort of fall by the wayside in the second half of the run, and never be as fully explored as I'm sure Kirby planned. Still a lot of fun while it lasted.

A 22-page story inked by Vince Colletta (with Murphy Anderson doing the DC-ification of Superman and Jimmy) and Neal Adams inking Kirby on the cover.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

A new Captain America image by Kirby/Giacoia is on the cover of this book, which contains three Kirby reprints.

Two stories from CAPTAIN AMERICA #3 (1941) begin and end the book. First is "The Hunchback of Hollywood and the Movie Murder" (17-pages), which has a movie producer making an historical epic with clear anti-nazi overtones. He gets himself killed, but the film production goes on, with Steve Rogers and Bucky being hired as extras. They take advantage of the movie stage setting for a lot of fun scenes, including a horseback duel, a swordfighting scene and the storming of a castle...

...before finally revealing the true villain behind the hunchback.

Ending the book is the awkwardly titled "The Queer Case Of The Murdering Butterfly And The Ancient Mummies", retitled for this reprint as the no less awkward "The Weird Case Of The Plundering Butterfly And The Ancient Mummies" (11-pages). This time there's a criminal gang operating out of a museum, which Bucky discovers on a class trip (Cap wanted to him to go to West Point some day. Poor Bucky...). Again, the setting allows for a lot of nice background touches which make the story much more interesting than its simple plotline.

Various hands were inking Cap in those days. The Kirby Checklist has the first as Joe Simon, the second as Reed Crandall, and Al Avison and Crandall doing general assists on the issue. Lots of minor art alterations in both those stories, making the hunchback less scary, changing a scene where Cap stabs a guy, as well as generally mediocre art reconstruction. Fortunately later reprints are more faithful to the originals.

Among the monster/suspense stories between the Cap reprints is the 13-page Kirby/Ayers "Beware of Bruttu" from TALES OF SUSPENSE #22 (1961). An interesting twist on the standard monster story of the era, as this time the story is about a scientist who is accidentally transformed into a monster (based on one in a comic book, too), so the story is actually narrated by the monster, as he's hunted and unable to communicate, and finds out a few things about life on the way. Definitely one of the better of these stories, and much more of a pre-cursor to Marvel hero concepts like the Hulk than those stories that just happen to use the name "Hulk" that are often passed off as "prototypes".

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

A Kirby/Sinnott cover to this comic, introducing a new character to the team to give it a British flavour and some female presence. I like the inking on the German soldiers, makes me wonder what a Kirby/Sinnott war comic would have looked like. I'll have to see if I can find some of the issues of BATTLE they had stories in back in 1960.

Monday, September 05, 2005

In this reprint from FANTASTIC FOUR #80 (1968), the FF get a note from Wyatt Wingfoot, gone back to visit his tribe, about some mysterious goings-on involving an old legend. Having nothing else to do while waiting for Sue to have her baby, the menfolk go off, and lucky for Wyatt that they do.

The oil-rich land of his people is being attacked by a giant robot in the form of their mythic protector Tomazooma, in hopes of scaring them off the land. Great looking design for the robot, and a lot of fun action with the FF and Wyatt's tribe against the robot, and a lot of good character interaction among the boys.

One page is edited for this reprint, a splash of Ben dancing with Johnny about the prospect of going on vacation. Joe Sinnott inks the now 19-page story and cover.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Following the Madbomb crisis during the Bicentennial, Cap and the Falcon plan some much needed rest (which includes a comfortable bubble bath for Cap). Unfortunately, over in New York there's been a plague of attacks from "The Night People", mysterious underground vagrants who are stealing odd things, everything except money. They overhear Falcon on the phone with his girlfriend Leila, and needing a super-hero for their purposes they kidnap her as bait for the Falcon, who quickly flies in to the rescue.

The Falcon is captured, and back in Washington Cap gets reports that he was seen vanishing in mid-air.

Kirby didn't stop for a minute on the wild ride that was his last run on Cap, and there are a lot of things to like about this issue. The odd layout on one early page, showing the various thefts the Night People were up to, was really nice, and throwing in a dramatic mid-air rescue was a good way to keep the action flowing.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Kirby's chronicles of the Losers brings them to France this issue, in a story reportedly very close to a few of the real war stories that Kirby would tell.

The Losers have a rare three-day pass, and go to a town that they think should have been taken by the allies weeks ago. Unfortunately, they took a wrong turn somewhere, and the town is full of Germans, leading to a lot of firefights and general destruction before the American forces roll-in. That includes a cameo from General Patton, who thanks them for keeping the Germans occupied and declares the Losers "Fine boys, but 'foul-ups'".

Also in this issue, two pages of various machine guns used in WWII, and on the letter page Steve Sherman mentions that Kirby used an extensive picture file of WWII material for the book, and they'd recently gone out to get more reference material.

D. Bruce Berry inks the cover, 18-page story and 2-page backup.

Published 1974

For more on Kirby's war experience and how he used it in this run of OFF, check out the Kirby Museum.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

A Kirby/Rule (*) cover for this western cover. I really like that foreground indian with the bow-and-arrow, and I like the way the block-out colouring works with this design, and how all those design elements (arrow, gun, hand) lead the eye to KC.